Motor vehicles having an electric motor as drive motor have to be charged at charging stations, in order that they can store the necessary energy for a journey of the motor vehicle. To this end, the motor vehicle has an electric energy store and a plug-in apparatus which can be connected by means of a charging cable with a correspondingly compatible plug-in apparatus to a charging station, in order for it to be possible to charge the electric energy store. Here, the electric energy stores are often supplied with a high voltage charge current.
Since the electric energy stores can heat up to a pronounced extent in charging operations of this type, which might be detrimental to the power output and the service life of the energy store, cooling options have been disclosed in the prior art, by means of which the electric energy store can be cooled.
DE 10 2010 007 975 B4, which is incorporated by reference herein, discloses a charging station having a charging cable, in which a cooling device with a coolant line which can be connected to it is also provided in the charging station, it being possible for the coolant line to be connected to the motor vehicle, in order to feed a coolant to the energy store, in order for it to be possible to cool the latter. Here, the electric cable for the electric charge current is kept separate from the coolant line.
It has been shown, however, that the quality of the electric contact between the vehicle-side plug-in apparatus and the charging station-side plug-in apparatus is variable, in particular, even in the case of changing exterior conditions and even during the charging operation, and said electric contact can become worse during the charging operation, with the result that the plug-in apparatus can be heated to an undesirably pronounced extent and the charging operation can be impaired disadvantageously as a result, which is either manifested in a lower charging capacity after the charging or which can lead to lengthening of the charging duration.